LAS VEGAS—Roger Penske first entered a NASCAR race as a team owner more than 40 years ago.

After a couple of near-misses with Rusty Wallace including a runner-up finish in 1993, Penske finally won a championship as Brad Keselowski outdueled five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson two weeks ago in the season finale to win the 2012 Sprint Cup Series title.

The 75-year-old Penske finally got his hand on the big prize after the past 22 years as a full-time participant on the NASCAR circuit.

So for Penske to celebrate his first Sprint Cup Series title as an owner, there had to be at least a little emotion for a businessman known for his stoicism.

He didn’t allow himself to get too emotional during the season-ending awards ceremony Friday night at the Wynn Las Vegas, but it was obvious that this wasn’t a run-of-the-mill day for Penske.

“I guess it was a relief because you build up to this over so much time,” Penske said. “I’ve been disappointed many times in racing where you thought you were going to come home with a win (and lose)—and that was always in the back of my mind but I never let it get in front.”

In delivering his speech during the banquet, Penske thanked a litany of people who played pivotal roles along the way. The head of several auto dealerships and automotive-related businesses, Penske has a long history in motorsports as a car owner (including having won the Indianapolis 500 an impressive 15 times) as well as a track operator.

“It’s a great night for me and our team and all of our 40,000 employees who support auto racing,” Penske said about all of his companies.

“This racing has been a common thread to our company to build the brand, and tonight is a culmination of a lot of hard work for a lot of people.”

Penske plans to put a championship banner in all of his dealerships and all of his businesses.

“I walked into my office on Monday morning (after Homestead) and we had a big banner already made up as the champion,” Penske said. “Think about walking into your own place and see that. So (that’s) pretty special.

“That banner is going to hang in every one of our 1,500 locations around the U.S. that we’re champions. That’s something not everybody can say.”

Penske said he has received congratulations from “thousands” of people around the world in a championship that has seemed to resonate with many race fans because of the 28-year-old Keselowski’s exuberance, not to mention his relationship with fans through social media.

And while Penske was won all those Indianapolis 500s, Penske got a taste of what a NASCAR championship has meant over the last two weeks.

“I never realized the power and the impact of this sport,” Penske said. “I’ve been involved in running the Super Bowl in 2006 in Detroit and saw the noise and all the things that goes on with the champion.

“This is special. This is about an individual. This is not stick-and-ball—this is really someone gets to the top. You race 38 weekends and it’s a business where you can’t run into the locker room when you have a bad day or run behind the bench.”

Penske’s triumph was a popular one in the industry. Team owner Rick Hendrick, whose organization has won 10 Cup titles and also is a Penske competitor in the car sales business, traded hats with Penske following the season finale at Homestead two weeks ago. Penske spent much of the remainder of the night wearing that Hendrick hat.

Nearly every driver and other industry personnel who spoke during the championship weekend mentioned Penske at some point.

“I've known Roger Penske since I was a teenager,” NASCAR chairman Brian France said Thursday. “I have worked with Roger Penske my entire professional life.

“And it's really, really exciting for me to know and see Roger (win it) because in everything he's done, he's done it with high integrity, he's done it with incredible effort and he's done it with amazing class.”

In his speech, Penske said it was an honor to join Richard Petty, Richard Childress, Joe Gibbs, Jack Roush and Tony Stewart as championship-winning car owners.

“To get into this amazing club, you can’t buy it with money, you can’t get voted in—you’ve got to earn it,” Penske said. “You’ve got to earn it by winning.”

Few would doubt that Penske has definitely earned a Cup championship, considering how long it took for him to get there.

“So many people asked me why it took 40 years,” Penske said. “Winning it tonight is obviously so important, but when I think of my family and five children and 11 grandchildren and a world-class business, I’d have to say you’d have to put those in front of a championship.

“Tonight, getting to that final goal which is to be a NASCAR champion, the timing couldn’t be better.”